WASHINGTON − Another flag − not an upside one, but a flag that said “Appeal to Heaven” − carried by some of the people who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, flew over a home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito last summer, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The second flag, which the report said is a symbol for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign, was raised over Alito’s New Jersey vacation home in July and September of 2023.
The Times previously reported that an upside-down American flag flew over the justices Virginia home in January of 2021.
Supreme Court justices are supposed to avoid politics.
Alito told the Times his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, raised the inverted flag in response to a dispute with a neighbor and he “had no involvement whatsoever.”
The Times said Alito declined to respond to questions about the beach house flag.
A spokesperson for the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY to the latest report.
MoreJustices Thomas, Alito complain about ‘nastiness’ and ‘imperiled’ freedom of religion
The high court is deciding two cases related to former President Donald Trump and his supporters’ efforts to overturn the results of the election, decisions that will affect the criminal election interference charges pending against Trump.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, renewed his call for Alito to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“This episode will further erode public faith in the court,” Durbin said in a statement in which he also urged Chief Justice John Roberts to add an enforcement mechanism to the court’s ethics code.
Durbin has been pushing for Congress to impose on the court stronger ethics rules backed by an enforcement process but has been blocked by Republicans.
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What does the `Appeal to Heaven’ pine tree flag mean?
The “Appeal to Heaven” flag − a white flag with a green pine tree in the center − was used during the American Revolution. It has become a symbol for Christian nationalist.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has hung the flag outside his congressional office.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation calls the flag a “sectarian symbol that indicates government endorsement of Christianity.”
Delivering the commencement address at a Catholic University this month, Alito said that the freedom of religion is “imperiled.”
He told the graduates of Franciscan University of Steubenville they may soon find themselves in a job or social setting where they will feel pressure to endorse ideas they don’t believe in or to abandon core beliefs.
“It will be up to you,” he said, “to stand firm.”
When was the flag flown over Alito’s beach house?
The Times report included a Google Street View image from last August showing the “Appeal to Heaven” flag at his home on Long Beach Island. The Times said other photographs it obtained, as well as corroboration from neighbors, show the flag flying in July and September of 2023.
